List of Renewed - Cancelled - Still under debate - Shows Announced (So Far...)

EXCLUSIVE: Fox is developing a potential new incarnation of its Emmy-winning drama series that would have a female lead and take the real-time format of the terrorism-themed original and apply it to a different arena, criminal justice.

The project, which has received a script commitment, hails from 24 franchise executive producers Howard Gordon and Imagine’s Brian Grazer, as well as former The Killing writer-producer Jeremy Doner and the franchise’s production companies, 20th Century Fox TV and Imagine TV. Doner will write the script with Gordon, who ran the original series.

Germany’s Tele Munchen Group has acquired international rights outside of Italy for the eight-part series, commissioned by Italian public broadcaster Rai.

It had been thought Wild Bunch would distribute when the project was announced this month.

The €26m ($30 million) series is produced by Italian production company Palomar, the firm behind Young Montalbano and 11 Marzo.

The Name of the Rose, which is set in the Middle Ages, was previously made into a feature film starring Christian Slater and Sean Connery and directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud in 1986. The story follows Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his apprentice Adso who witness a series of murders at a secluded monastery in the Alps. While the pair are investigating, they are hunted by Bernardo Gui, a merciless inquisitor who prosecutes those who criticize the Pope.

Turturro will star as William of Baskerville with Everett playing Gui. The series is written by Andrea Porporati (La Piovra), Nigel Williams (The Sea Wolf) and Giacomo Battiato (Karol: A Man Who Becomes Pope), with Battiato directing and Luther and Penny Dreadful’s John Conroy as director of photography.

Principal photography will start in January 2018 in the Cinecitta Studios in Rome and on location around Lazio and Abruzzo. It is expected to air in the first quarter of 2019.

I hear Amazon, Netflix and HBO had been approached about the project, which comes with an upfront rights payment said to be in the $200 – $250 million range. That is just for the rights, before any costs for development, talent and production. It is a payment that has to be made sight unseen as there is no concept, and there are no creative auspices attached to the possible series. (I hear the pitch at HBO involved producer Jane Tranter whose company is partially owned by HBO and Sky but the general package has no talent attached.) On top of that, the budget for a fantasy series of that magnitude is likely to be $100-$150 a season.

I hear that Amazon and Netflix are still in the running while HBO, home of blockbuster fantasy series Game Of Thrones, passed awhile back because of the the finances of the deal that many industry observes call “insane.” Additionally, industry sources note that there are already three great Lord Of the Rings movies and a total of six movies in the world made, along with the Hobbit films. Plus, I hear that the rights for a TV series in the Lord of the Rights do not encompass all characters and are limited.

Given Amazon’s mandate to launch a big fantasy series of the scope of Game Of Thrones, which comes directly from honcho Jeff Bezos, and Amazon’s deep coffers, the company is considered a leading contender for a Lord Of the Rings series. (For context, the price tag for the rights to Lord Of the Rings is what Bezos payed for Washington Post.) Bezos has been hands-on involved in the matters of entertainment division Amazon Studios following the purge of its top executives, led by Roy Price, and has been taking meetings and making calls to agents over the past two weeks. Amazon’s talks for a Lord of the Rings TV series were first reported by Variety.

The Lord of the Rings deal would dwarf some big-ticket series commitments Amazon has made over the last couple of years — $80 million for the six-episode Woody Allen show Crisis in Six Scenes, $70+ million for Matt Weiner’s eight-episode The Romanoffs, and $160 for two seasons of David O. Russell’s series, which now has been axed after about $40 million spent. (The last two series originally came from The Weinstein Co., which no longer has involvement in The Romanoffs)

The possible Lord of the Rings TV series is done in conjunction with Warner Bros. TV, whose film studio counterpart produced the feature trilogy in the 2000s. The TV studio would not comment on the talks, which are preliminary.

Reimagining the original anthology, Amazing Stories, executive produced by Spielberg in partnership with Bryan Fuller, “will transport the audience to worlds of wonder through the lens of today’s most imaginative filmmakers, directors and writers.” In addition to Spielberg and Fuller, Amazing Stories is executive produced by Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey and Hart Hanson; and produced by Universal Television and Amblin Television.

Monica Barbaro has been cast as the female lead opposite Tony Danza and Josh Groban in The Good Cop, a 10-episode straight-to-series dramedy crime procedural for Netflix. The project, inspired by a format from Israeli production company Yes, hails from Monk creator/executive producer Andy Breckman and director/executive producer Randy Zisk.

The show, which was known as Chicken during development, sees a number of brave and crazy contestants attempt to withstand pain and discomfort in a series of hilarious games designed to make them scared. Three celebrity hosts bet on which contestant can withstand the most pain, and the losing host faces the same fate in their very own game of chicken.

It was commissioned by Nat Grouille, Netflix’s senior manager of unscripted content, and is set to go into full production shortly.

The story follows the estranged members of a dysfunctional family of superheroes known as the Umbrella Academy — Luther, Diego, Allison, Vanya, Klaus and Number Five — as they work together to solve their father’s mysterious death while coming apart at the seams due to their divergent personalities and abilities.

Page will play Vanya, the black sheep of her dysfunctional family. She’s the only one of Reginald Hargreeves’ adopted children with no supernatural abilities. A meek and insecure wallflower, Vanya struggles to find her place in the world.

Syfy has set the full cast for its Deadly Class pilot, a drama based on the graphic novel of the same name, by Rick Remender and Wes Craig, with The Avengers directors Joe and Anthony Russo executive producing.

Co-created by Remender and Miles Feldsott, the pilot Deadly Class follows a disillusioned teen recruited into a storied high school for assassins. Maintaining his moral code while surviving a ruthless curriculum, vicious social cliques, and his own adolescent uncertainties may prove fatal. Set against the backdrop of late 80s counter culture, Deadly Class is described as a coming of age journey unlike anything you’ve ever seen.

Written by Assassin’s Creed scribes Bill Collage and Adam Cooper, and Jonathan Collier (Bones), The French Detective is a light procedural drama that centers on Luc Moncrief, a Parisian detective who moves to New York and joins the NYPD in order to leave his previous life behind and start fresh. The sexy procedural follows Moncrief as he and his blue collar female partner solve New York’s most complex and inscrutable crimes, while Luc simultaneously tries to keep his dark past from catching up to him.

Dujardin will star as Moncrief in his first U.S television role.

Collage, Cooper, and Collier executive produce with Besson and James Patterson Entertainment’s James Patterson, Leopoldo Gout, and Bill Robinson.